KIEV: Russia yesterday accused the West of seeking regime change in Moscow, raising tensions over the Ukraine conflict in the worst crisis in relations since the end of the Cold War.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke out against Western sanctions on Russia after US Vice President Joe Biden hinted on Friday at possible further measures over Moscow’s “unacceptable” role in the former Soviet republic.
Kiev’s defence minister charged yesterday that there were 7,500 Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, although Russia denies claims that it provides military support to pro-Moscow separatists battling government forces.
“The West is showing unambiguously that they do not want to force (Russia) to change policy. They want to achieve a change of regime,” Lavrov said in Moscow.
“Now public figures in Western countries are saying that it’s necessary to introduce sanctions that would destroy the economy and rouse public protests,” he added in comments cited by the state-run TASS news agency.
In Kiev on Friday, Biden accused Russia of failing to honour a peace agreement signed in September, which included a now tattered ceasefire for eastern Ukraine.
“So long as that continues, Russia will face rising costs, greater isolation,” he added.
Lavrov’s comments came after Ukraine’s Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak claimed Russia had thousands of troops in the east and vowed that the cash-strapped country would boost its military capacity.
“The presence of 7,500 representatives of Russian armed forces in Ukraine destabilises the situation and prevents us from stabilising it,” Poltorak said.
A European government source speaking on condition of anonymity put the number of Russian tanks in eastern Ukraine at 140, highlighting “pressure” on the port city of Mariupol.
Seizing Mariupol would be vital to any separatist plan to create a land corridor between the Russian border and Crimea, a region which Russia annexed from Ukraine earlier this year.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said it did not have clear figures to corroborate that number but pointed to the presence of a range of other military hardware as well.
Ukraine’s head of security operations in the east said that 20 units of Russian “military hardware” had crossed the border yesterday, adding that they were en route to the rebel stronghold of Lugansk.
In the past 24 hours, four Ukrainian soldiers and one civilian have been killed in eastern Ukraine, officials said.AFP
